11 Store-Bought Cornbread Mixes, Ranked Worst To Best

Everyone has an opinion on cornbread. For instance, some believe it is one word, while others insist it is two separate words. There are also two regional philosophies of cornbread — Southern and Northern. And just like some people care way more about the "proper" spelling of "cornbread," there are those who will become downright hostile about what qualifies as cornbread.

Cornmeal, bacon grease, and buttermilk — and a hot cast iron skillet — are staples of the cornbread produced by Southerners. In contrast, Northern cornbread tends to add sugar and flour to the mix, leading to something closer to cake in taste and texture. I hope this doesn't start a food fight, but for this ranking of best and worst cornbread mixes, I chose those that contain cornmeal, flour, and sugar because it's what my local supermarket stocks.

I chose 10 brands of cornbread to sample, but with the huge selection in the baking aisle, I could have chosen more. Many manufacturers produce different varieties within the cornbread family, using different grains and flavors. However, I only have so many pans, so I only bought a second variety from one of the brands. Most of the mixes are of the sweet variety, but I did include two with savory flavors — one that I immediately regretted and another that proved to be a tasty twist on a classic.

Like Marie Curie and Marie Antoinette, Marie Callender's cornbread has met an unfortunate fate and landed in last place in this cornbread mix ranking. Did you know that one of the meanings of the name Marie is "sea of bitterness"? Well, that about sums up this cornbread.

While Marie Callender's makes some of my favorite pies, this is a disappointing offering from the restaurant's product line. First of all, this is the only "just add water" entry in the bunch. That means you don't need to add milk, egg, or butter for flavor. Instead, this cornbread relies on powdered substitutes that don't have the same richness. The manufacturer, Custom Bakehouse, uses a blend of leaveners that are known to produce a bitter flavor. It is shockingly strong and amazingly repulsive.

Marie Callender's cornbread is deceivingly appealing at first glance, but leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The mix bakes up beautifully yellow and fluffy, but one taste of its biting bitterness erases all the good feelings on the first bite. I took as few bites as needed to rate this and moved on to the next mix. Sadly, it wasn't much better.

Cornbread is a staple in various cuisines, but each region has its own version. Mexican cornbread tends to be sweet and moist, while Southern varieties are typically savory and unsweetened. So when Old El Paso, the poster child of Tex-Mex, attempts a cultural mashup with its Southwest Style Cornbread Mix, it's just too far of a divide to cross, and the flavors get lost in translation.

This cornbread is simultaneously too painfully sweet (15 grams of added sugar per serving) and too bitterly savory (packed with bold spices), and the combination just doesn't work. The spices — unidentified on the list of ingredients — are most likely the typical Tex-Mex mix of chili powder and cumin. In a cloying mouthful, they turn bitter.

Old El Paso also makes a dessert-style cornbread, cinnamon churro, which sounds like it makes more sense. I would have tried it if I'd been able to find it in my area because I think I would have liked it better. Due to the spices, the bread comes out of the oven with a brownish-orange color. It's on the dry side, but the crumble factor is low. It slices cleanly in the pan and doesn't make a mess on the plate. Some of my tasting helpers aren't as offended by the taste juxtaposition, and their input saves this brand from ranking dead last.

Famous Dave's restaurant owner, Dave Anderson, is considered the most decorated pitmaster, having earned more than 700 awards for his BBQ sauces and meats. However, he has also taken home gold for his equally golden cornbread, too. At the restaurant, Famous Dave's cornbread muffins come with the meal to balance the flavors of all the smoke, spice, sauce, and salt with something sweet. When prepared at home, Famous Dave's Cornbread Mix has an option to make a dozen muffins, six jumbo-sized muffins, or a pan of cornbread. I chose to do the latter, which resulted in the familiar light and fluffy texture created by the superfine, ground cornmeal.

Different than the restaurant-made muffins, which tend to have sticky tops, the slice from my pan is on the dry side, which resulted in a careful workout while trying to move the somehow both dry and sticky glob of cornbread toward the back of the mouth to swallow. The mix makes cornbread with the same sweet corn flavor as at the restaurant, but its sugar punch to the mouth hits differently when eaten with a rich and meaty meal slathered in spicy sauce. Eaten plain, the high-sugar, low-flavor characteristics leave it open to the bitter, almost chemical aftertaste that sours the whole experience for me. Famous Dave's also sells a jalepeño cornbread mix, which might stand up better when eaten solo, plus one that is gluten-free.

There are several ways to mess up cornbread, and while some are the fault of the baker, such as not preheating or greasing the pan, a lot still depends on the ingredients. That's why a premeasured, premixed baking mix is so appealing. Most brands of cornbread I sampled call for the addition of a liquid, a fat, and a binder. Krusteaz is the only mix which suggested vegetable oil with an option for butter in parentheses. Seeking that classic rich taste, I opted for melted butter.

Sadly, I don't think it mattered what I chose because the problem with this mix is that there's a processed kind of bitter taste that even the addition of full-fat milk, unsalted butter, and an egg can't overcome. Tasting more strongly of sugar than corn (with 28 grams of added sugar per serving), I might as well make a dessert out of this cornbread.

The reason Krusteaz earned a higher ranking than Famous Dave's is that its texture feels more authentic than most of the other brands. It has a coarser grain of cornmeal that adds a toothsome grittiness to the otherwise light crumb, which is an appealing contrast. Still, taste is paramount when it comes to cornbread, and the next mix on the list takes the flavor in a totally new direction.

Hot honey is a popular drizzle for chicken sandwiches and pizza, but it can also be stirred into ingredients like pasta sauce for a surprise sizzle. While it's easy to put hot honey on a corn muffin, it's much harder to put it inside. Jiffy uses spray-dried honey, which is combined with spice and appears as reddish-orange bits mixed into the powdery contents of the corn muffin mix. The bits melt as the bread bakes, adding pockets of pizzazz into each muffin. The warm simmer of sweet-n-spicy flavor begins to bloom after the initial flavor of sweet corn and honey registers. The texture of this new flavor of muffin is the same as the original Jiffy mix (more on that later). It's a bit on the dry side, but with a good taste accompanied by a buzz in the taste buds.

Fortunately, the flavorful bits aren't globs of sugar that burn in the hot pan. They melted into the bread, and I didn't even need to use cupcake liners to prevent the batter from sticking when in direct contact with the metal pan. If you prefer using muffin tin liners for easy cleanup, skip the cheap ones, or you'll be eating paper bits that stick to your baked goods. Alternatively, you can opt for parchment liners or even make your own muffin liners.

The previous cornbread mix didn't have a strong corn taste, and neither does this one. Here in the middle of the pack are the most serious members of the cornbread mix family, the ones with a predictably dry humor but none of the corny jokes. Martha White's cornbread mix has simple ingredients that bake into a light, tender crumb, but it might as well be a cupcake. That's not such a stretch because Martha White has a whole line of muffin mixes alongside its other varieties of cornbread mixes.

However, it's lacking in flavor. If Sweet Yellow Cornbread doesn't have an obvious corn flavor, it feels safe to assume that the other varieties — including buttermilk, honey, and Mexican-style — will also fall short. But there is still a good use for this blank slate mix. After all, Martha White was once the go-to brand of cornbread mix used by contestants in the National Cornbread Cook-off, so you can find a lot of award-winning recipes that use this 7-ounce mix online. But really, there's no limit to the ways to dress up a cornbread mix. Corn is such a versatile flavor that it plays well with both sweet and savory additions. And because this mix makes a small amount of cornbread, it's a good base for experimenting with flavor-boosting mix-ins.

Cornbread is a classic accompaniment to almost any meal, or it can be a meal itself. A breakfast of crumbled corn bread with hot milk or cold buttermilk poured on top is a real treat. Additionally, cornmeal mix is an easy shortcut for corn pancakes, corn dogs, or a hearty chili-cornbread skillet pie. But not all muffin mixes can handle these various roles. Fleischmann's Simply Homemade Cornbread Mix is incredibly fine — almost a soft powder — which creates a tender, airy texture that is scrumptious as a muffin, but is too delicate for something like a pizza crust or cornbread croutons. Instead, the texture is perfect for waffles, and the leftovers would be terrific for putting a creatively crunchy twist on mac and cheese.

As far as taste, any corn flavor this muffin has gets lost between the initial burst of sugar and the lingering sour note (maybe a chemical aftertaste or a bite from an acidic ingredient). I won't buy this brand if I want to make muffins — there are better-tasting mixes — however, I wouldn't ignore it completely. Slathered with butter and jam, the flavor could be salvaged. But it is relegated to the middle section of this ranking because of its one-note texture.

Bob's Red Mill makes a beautiful cornbread. Using melted butter instead of the oil option, and generously greasing the pan with even more butter, is a successful way to get a perfectly crunchy, golden crust on this baking endeavor, even when baked in a glass baking dish. The top of the bread has a nice crack around the middle, which is a sign that it rose quickly. Meanwhile, the inside is nicely fluffy.

Made with Bob's Signature Blend of four premium flours, the texture of this cornbread is soft, moist, and dense, but not heavy. If grading solely on texture, this would have ranked even higher. However, the flavor of each cornbread mix took precedence for this ranking. And unfortunately, the taste rates low — not because there's anything off-putting, but because there's nothing that particularly stands out. I like that this brand is mildly sweet and that there's even a nice, rich flavor from the flours. But the corn flavor is barely noticeable. A few bananas would turn this into a highly rated banana bread, but in a blind taste test, I don't think anyone would identify it as cornbread. Bob's bested Fleischman's brand only because it is fabulously moist and isn't any sweeter than it needs to be.

If Steve Harvey asked a contestant on "Family Feud" to name a brand of cornbread mix, the top survey answer would almost certainly be Jiffy. As proclaimed on its iconic blue and white box, it's "America's favorite," having sold low-cost baking mixes since 1930. That's a lot of experience in nailing consistent results.

The Jiffy brand is so old-school that it uses lard instead of oil or butter. You also stir an egg and milk into the mix before pouring it into muffin cups and baking until golden brown. If I learned one thing in 4-H, it's not to overmix muffin batter, so it was unsettling how clumpy the dry Jiffy mix was out of the box. A concerning number of blobs still dotted the batter when I filled my muffin tins. However, it proved to be irrelevant, as the muffins' texture turned out great with no powdery clumps. I also thoroughly greased the muffin tins with butter, which helped the edges bake into a golden crust while the interior stayed tender.

These muffins rose to take bronze thanks to their sweet corn taste and tender mouthfeel. The mix is also easy to use and adapt. The mix makes six muffins, or can be used to make pancakes or waffles. With the addition of just one tangy, spicy, savory, or sweet ingredient, this basic cornbread mix can be upgraded into a delicious side dish.

Zatarain's is a brand synonymous with lively New Orleans flavors, offering boxed side dishes or seasonings for many of Louisiana's most iconic dishes. It only makes sense that the brand offers a mix for cornbread, which is a staple of Creole and Cajun cuisine. Zatarain's makes two mixes: cheddar jalapeño and honey butter. I sampled the latter, soon learning that the natural sweet corn flavor is balanced by the honey, adding a rich sweetness. The manufacturer suggests mix-ins like canned corn or its signature Creole seasoning to elevate the dish even further, but it is good without them, too.

The taste is enough to make up for what the mix is lacking. Zatarain's seems to use a coarser grain of cornmeal, which yields a texture that is less cake-like because it is drier and crumblier. How much of that is due to the mix and how much is due to my choice of pan, I don't know. Preparation instructions say the 12.5-ounce mix makes roughly nine muffins or an 8x8 pan of bread. By using a 9x9 pan (I only have so many pans!), I could have accidentally made the bread too thin, and therefore more crumbly and fragile when cut, than it should have been in theory. However, the flavor rescued this mix from being dragged down to a lower ranking.

Dolly Parton was more than a triple threat. She was a skilled singer and actress, inspired kids to read, co-owned a theme park, and served as the face of our favorite cornbread! This offering is part of her product line in collaboration with Duncan Hines and hits the top of the chart due to its bold corn flavor, which sings through the sweetness.

The version falls squarely into the Northern cornbread category because it is so sweet and moist that it is almost cake. It's an extreme contrast to the Southern cornbread recipe in Parton's cookbook "Dolly's Dixie Fixin's," which only has four ingredients: bacon drippings, cornmeal, salt, and buttermilk. In contrast, this cornbread mix calls for the addition of melted butter, eggs, and milk.

I chose to bake Dolly's mix in an 8x8 glass pan, which resulted in taller pieces. It baked to a bright shade of light yellow with golden brown edges. Each bite was sweet and moist. It even retained its shape, so serving it up didn't turn each slice to crumbs like some of the other mixes. Cornbread is the ultimate Southern food to mourn the loss of the Queen of Country, but like her spunky personality, you could choose to celebrate Dolly with the extra lively, Extra Special Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread recipe printed on the box of this mix.

I tasted each of the 11 cornbread mixes plain, without any additions such as butter or jam, so I could focus on the flavors and ingredients. I rated the appearance, corniness, overall flavor, texture — of both crust and interior — and ease of cutting, serving, and eating.

Most mixes gave options for a few different cooking methods. I made some in glass casserole dishes, some in metal cake pans, and some in metal muffin tins. Lest you think I don't have a kernel of sense: Yes, I am aware that cornbread should be cooked in a cast iron skillet. However, when making 11 kinds of cornbread, I had to use the cookware I had available, and since I own just one extra-large cast iron pan, I had to branch out. However, to achieve that coveted golden crust, I preheated and greased my pans with butter.

As a cornbread fanatic, I will corn-fide in you — I would rather eat any of these mixes than no cornbread at all. Cornbread is so versatile that even flat, dry, or flavorless results can be fixed by pouring warm milk on it or slathering it with butter and jam. Even the lowest-ranking cornbread could be crumbled into a soup or salad with decent results.